Mobile information services

ABSTRACT

Mobile communications devices display contextually relevant information based on the presence, status, and identification of a user. Lens templates control how the information is displayed and can be customized and designed for specific usage profiles. The lenses that are used can be updated at any time to accommodate changes in a user&#39;s presence. The granularity of the lenses and corresponding information can also vary to accommodate different needs and preferences. Lenses can also be specialized for different events or venues. The lenses allow a user to access contextually relevant information from a mobile communications device having limited display and/or browse capabilities without requiring a user to navigate through undesired information, wasting valuable resources in the process.

1. CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a divisional of application Ser. No. 10/715,944,filed Nov. 18, 2003, and entitled “MOBILE INFORMATION SERVICES” andwhich claims the benefit and priority of provisional U.S. patent No.60/477,410, filed Jun. 9, 2003, entitled “MobileLens,” both of which areincorporated herein by reference.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

2. The Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to the field of information servicesavailable via mobile communications links and, more particularly, toimprovements in delivering and presenting information to mobilecommunications devices.

3. Background and Relevant Art

In the telecommunications industry, several advances have been made tofacilitate the convergence of computing and telephone capabilities. Forexample, it is now common for mobile telephones and other mobilecommunications devices to be equipped with displays and browsers toenable access to the Internet and other network repositories.

The utility of such a communications device is well appreciated. Forexample, such devices can enable a user to access their email or othermessages, even while they are traveling. Other information, such as, butnot limited to, financial reports, weather, sporting reports and newscan also be accessed on a mobile communications device while a person istraveling, such as, for example, by using the mobile communicationsdevice to connect to the Internet or other available networks.traveling, such as, for example, by using the mobile communicationsdevice to connect to the Internet or other available networks.

Although the ability to access information remotely and on the move canbe advantageous, for at least the reasons mentioned above, theportability of some mobile communications devices inherently limits thedisplay and navigation capabilities for presenting the information thatis obtained. In particular, the size constraints of some mobiletelephones and PDAs can restrict the amount of information that can beproperly displayed at any given time. For example, existing mobilecommunications devices can typically only display a relatively limitedamount of information as compared to, for example, a desktop computermonitor. Accordingly the amount of information and the type ofinformation that is displayed on a mobile communications device isrestricted to the browser and display capabilities of the mobilecommunications device, rather than on the preferences of the user or therelevance of the information that is be displayed at any particulartime.

To help overcome some of these limitations, a user can utilize anInternet service, such as Microsoft's MSN Mobile, to customize aPC-based webpage to help focus and control the presentation ofinformation that is accessed and displayed by the mobile communicationsdevice when the mobile webpage is accessed. For example, a PC-basedpersonalized webpage can enable a user to select various types of newsreports, financial reports, sporting reports, weather reports, and otherinformation that they want to be presented when they access theirpersonalized mobile webpage. By doing this, a user can have some controlover the information that is presented on their mobile communicationsdevice. However, because of the restrictive display and browsecapabilities of the mobile communications devices, as described above,the presentation of the desired information can still be presented insome unsatisfying or undesired way.

Furthermore, because people traditionally use telephones differentlythan they use their computers, users may not want to access the sameinformation on their telephones as they do on their computer.Accordingly, a customized webpage that is intended for computer webaccess can include more information than a person wishes to access ornavigate through on their telephone. This is particularly true whenconsidering that accessing Internet information over a telephone cansometimes cost a user more than the same access on a computer, dependingon the user's phone plan.

Yet another reason why a user may wish to access different informationwith their telephone than they do with their computer is because mosttelephone devices do not have the advanced navigation affordances thatare provided by most computers, such as, for example, full sizekeyboards, and so forth.

Accordingly, although the ability to access information through a mobilecommunications device can be useful, it is not always practical ordesirable to access information on a mobile device in the same way as ona traditional computer. Instead, it is typically more desirable toaccess more focused and relevant information so that a user does nothave to waste valuable time and resources (e.g., power resources) tryingto find desired information. This is even more true when a user istraveling between cities, states, or even countries, because theinformation they are seeking may be contextually relevant only to thelocation or time in which they are seeking the information. Therefore,what is needed in the industry are improved methods and systems forpresenting information for mobile communications devices in desirableand contextually relevant ways.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to methods, systems and computer-programproducts for presenting information to mobile communications devices ina desirable manner.

According to one embodiment, the information that is presented at auser's mobile communication device is contextually based upon thelocation of the mobile communications device, the identity of the user,the time of day the information is accessed, suggestions based uponaggregated information-based web portal usage statistics, personal andother related status and presence information.

To facilitate the manner in which information is presented, variousdifferent template-like lenses are utilized that control thepresentation of information displayed on the mobile communicationsdevices. For example, different lenses for different geographic anddemographic applications can be provided that present contextuallyrelevant information based upon user status, presence, and preference. Auser can even build and utilize different customized lenses toaccommodate their particular needs and desires.

The granularity of the lenses can vary to accommodate various needs andpreferences. For example, geographic lenses can be based on communities,cities, states, nationalities, as well as any other identifiablegeography. Lenses can also be specialized for different venues, such assporting venues, recreational venues, educational venues, work venues,national parks, amusement parks, and so forth. Although the mobilecommunications service can automatically update lenses based uponcontextual status and presence information, it will also be appreciatedthat a user can also specify particular preferences or make specialrequests for particular information in customizable lenses, as describedherein.

In one embodiment, the lenses are designed to accommodate variousprofiles that are developed from aggregate computer and telephone usagedata. In particular, usage profiles can be developed to identify thepreferences for certain users to access certain types of data based upontheir classified profiles. The profiles can be based on both how usersutilize their computers as well as how they utilize their telephones.Thereafter, the profiles can be used to develop or customize lenses toprovide the information that is desired by a user at their mobilecommunications device and in a desired manner.

It will be appreciated that in the foregoing manner, it is possible todynamically provide users with desired and updated information at mobilecommunications devices and in a contextually relevant manner, so thatthe information is time sensitive and relevant to the user's identifiedpreferences, locations and activities. Providing information to mobilecommunications devices in this manner can also improve the speed inwhich a user can obtains information after it has been requested. Inparticular, information can be automatically pushed to a user's mobilecommunications device, based on the user's presence and status data, andsubsequently cached on the mobile communications device until the useractually makes a request for the information, substantially improvingthe usability and user experience of mobile information service.

Alternatively, the information can be automatically presented upondetermining the appropriate lens to use for the presentation of theinformation, based upon contextually relevant or default settings.

Additional features and advantages of the invention will be set forth inthe description which follows, and in part will be obvious from thedescription, or may be learned by the practice of the invention. Thefeatures and advantages of the invention may be realized and obtained bymeans of the instruments and combinations particularly pointed out inthe appended claims. These and other features of the present inventionwill become more fully apparent from the following description andappended claims, or may be learned by the practice of the invention asset forth hereinafter.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

In order to describe the manner in which the above-recited and otheradvantages and features of the invention can be obtained, a moreparticular description of the invention briefly described above will berendered by reference to specific embodiments thereof which areillustrated in the appended drawings. Understanding that these drawingsdepict only typical embodiments of the invention and are not thereforeto be considered to be limiting of its scope, the invention will bedescribed and explained with additional specificity and detail throughthe use of the accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 illustrates one embodiment of a network in which a mobilecommunications device can receive information from an information sourcebased on contextually relevant data, such as the presence and status ofthe mobile communications device.

FIG. 2 illustrates a flowchart of various steps and acts that can beexecuted during implementation of certain methods of the invention forpresenting information at mobile communications devices.

FIGS. 3 a-3 e illustrates various embodiments of a mobile communicationsdevice displaying different information in different formats.

FIG. 4 illustrates one embodiment of a computing system that can be usedto implement certain aspects of the invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

The present invention extends to methods, systems and computer-programproducts for presenting information at mobile communications devices andin a contextually relevant manner.

The contextual information that is used to control how information ispresented at mobile communications devices is sometimes referred toherein as “status data”. In this regard, “status data” can refer to boththe presence of a mobile communications device, as well as thedesignation of a user that is associated with the mobile communicationsdevice (e.g., an identified user or an anonymous user).

It will be appreciated that the term “presence,” can refer to both aphysical location as well as a temporal state (e.g., time of use). Itshould also be appreciated that references that are made to a user'spresence should generally also be construed as applying to the presenceof the user's mobile communications device.

The term “mobile communications device,” as defined herein, generallyrefers to mobile telephone devices, PDAs, and other portable computingdevices. In one embodiment, the mobile communications device includes anIEEE 802.11 transceiver (i.e., a WiFi transceiver) and a rich clientapplication that can identify itself to a mobile data center, orinformation source. In another embodiment, the mobile communicationsdevice is a cellular telephone device that can be identified by atelephone number or MSISDN.

In various embodiments described herein, lenses (views) or templates areused to control what information is presented and how it is presented.These lenses generally comprise user interfaces that can be created,modified and used through computer software components, which aresometimes referred to herein as computer-executable instructions andcomputing modules.

Accordingly, the embodiments of the invention can include specialpurpose and general-purpose computing devices including various computersoftware and hardware. The embodiments within the scope of the presentinvention can also include computer-readable media for carrying orhaving the computer-executable instructions or data structures storedthereon.

It will be appreciated that the computer-readable media can be anyavailable media that can be accessed by a general purpose or specialpurpose computer, including, but not limited to mobile communicationsdevices. By way of example, and not limitation, such computer-readablemedia can comprise RAM, ROM, EEPROM, CD-ROM or other optical diskstorage, magnetic disk storage or other magnetic storage devices, or anyother medium which can be used to carry or store desired program codemeans in the form of computer-executable instructions or data structuresand which can be accessed by a general purpose or special purposecomputer. The computer-executable instructions comprise, for example,instructions and data which cause a general purpose computer, specialpurpose computer, or special purpose processing device to perform acertain function or group of functions, such as the acts and stepsdescribed below.

When information is transferred or provided over a network or anothercommunications connection (either hardwired, wireless, or a combinationof hardwired or wireless) to a computer or mobile communications device,the computer/device properly views the connection as a computer-readablemedium. Thus, any such connection is properly termed a computer-readablemedium. Combinations of the above should also be included within thescope of computer-readable media.

FIG. 1 illustrates one example of a network 100 in which embodiments ofthe invention can be practiced. As shown, the network 100 includes amobile communications device 110, a plurality of communication nodes120, 122, 124, and an information source 130.

The mobile communications device is presently illustrated as having theform factor of a wireless telephone. It will be appreciated, however,that the invention is not necessarily limited to only embodiments inwhich the mobile communications device comprises a wireless telephonedevice. For example, in other embodiments, the mobile communicationsdevice can comprise a PDA or portable computer.

As described herein, the mobile communications device receives anddisplays contextually relevant information based on such things aslocation, a user designation, and time. The location can be determined,for example, through an Assisted GPS system, E911 system or otherpositioning system. The location of the mobile communications device canbe determined by or published to the information source 130 that isproviding information to the mobile communications device.

The server 130 is able to provide desired information to the mobilecommunications device through one or more network communication nodes,such as nodes 120, 122 and 124. Although the nodes 120, 122 and 124 arepresently shown as telephone towers, it will be appreciated that themobile communications device can be communicably connected to theinformation source 130 through any combination of wireless links,hardwired links, distributed networks and intermediary devices.

According to one preferred embodiment, the network 100 includes at leastenough communication nodes to enable communication between the mobilecommunications device 110 and the information source 130 even when themobile communications device 110 is moved from one location to another,such as between locations A, B and C.

The information source 130 is presently illustrated as a single objecthaving a single local repository 140. It will be appreciated, however,that the information source 130 can actually comprise a distributednetwork having multiple local or remote repositories. Accordingly, theillustrated aggregate data 142 and lens repository 144, which are shownto be located within repository 140, can actually be distributed betweenand disposed in any combination of local and remote storage locations.

It will also be appreciated that the information source 130 includesvarious modules, which are not illustrated, for enabling communicationwith the mobile communications device 110, such as, for example toidentify the contextual relevant information that is be used todetermine the appropriate lenses for use in presenting information to auser at a mobile communications device.

In particular, as described herein, the mobile communications device 110receives contextually relevant information from an information sourceand displays the information, as specified by one or more lenses thathave been specifically designed for displaying information at the mobilecommunications device 110. Although the information displayed at themobile communications device can be visual, such as can be displayed ondisplay screen 150, it will also be appreciated that the information canbe audio information, in which case the information can be presentedthough an appropriate speaker. Likewise, brail readers can displayinformation by modifying the surface topography of a touch sensitivereader. Accordingly, references that are made herein with regard todisplaying information should be broadly construed to include thepresentation of information through any suitable presentation device.

Attention will now be directed to FIG. 2, which illustrates a flowchart200 of one embodiment of a method for presenting information to mobilecommunications devices. As shown, the method includes various steps andcorresponding acts that can be implemented during practice of theinvention.

The first illustrated step is to develop aggregate user preference data(step 210) that can be used to develop profiles that can in turn help toprovide relevant and desired information to users on mobilecommunications devices. Because people typically use their telephones orother mobile communications devices in a slightly different manner thanthey use their traditional computers, it can be useful, although notnecessary, to track both. standard computer usage (212) and telephoneusage (act 214).

The tracked computer usage can include any type of tracked computerusage, including the type of information that users access from anycombination of websites and servers, the ways in which personalizedwebpages are customized, the patterns and types of information that areaccessed at different times and as determined by any demographicgrouping.

The tracked telephone usage can also apply to any type of informationthat is accessed through any combination of mobile communicationsdevices by any demographic grouping. Although there are various types oftelephone usage that can be tracked, it is not necessary to track thestandard phone functions, such as call histories. Rather, the trackedtelephone usage is primarily focused on mobile information servicesutilized by the phone, including, but not limited to, the types ofinformation that is accessed, and the times in which the information isaccessed, and the usage patterns for accessing the information.

In one example, a preference engine is used to monitor the types ofinformation people like to access with traditional computers and thetypes of information the same groups or individual like to access withtheir telephones or other mobile communications devices.

Correlations can be drawn between the tracked computer and telephoneusage data by aggregating the usage data into one or more usage profiles(act 216). The usage profiles can be based on any type of individual orgroup, accounting for or ignoring any relevant demographic information.The usage profiles can then be associated with particular users, basedon their usage profiles, either automatically or by request, and in sucha way as to maintain and protect any desired level of the privacy forthe individual users.

According to one embodiment, the usage profiles are specifically used todevelop one or more corresponding lenses for presenting information tousers and in desired formats that accommodate the identified usageprofiles (act 220). For example, if it is determined that a particulargroup uses mobile communications devices to access only basketballscores, email and weather reports from the Internet, then a lens can bedeveloped that will be customized to only present the relevant anddesired information that corresponds to that lens, namely, basketballscores, email and weather reports, and in such a way that the groupmembers do not have to track the information down themselves frommultiple locations, and thereby preserving resources that wouldotherwise be required to access and format the information with themobile communications devices.

The act of building a lens (act 220) can be performed with variousprogramming languages and tools. The lens essentially comprises objectsand information that can be presented to a user, such as, for example,with XML a Search Query Lanaguage, or any other appropriate format. Someof the objects and information within the lens definition are static,such as window frames, others are dynamic and can be accessed inresponse to scripts or other computer-executable instructions that areembedded or attached to the lens, such as HTML links or applets that areexecuted when the lens is processed by the mobile communications devicefor display. Because the lenses are configured to present informationthat can be searched for, they can be thought of in a general sense as aspecialized type of search engine that obtains and presents informationin a desired and predefined format.

The next illustrated step is to select the appropriate one or morelenses to use for presenting data to a user (step 230). This step caninclude various corresponding acts, such as, for example, identifying auser or a user designation (act 232), identifying a user presence (act234), and considering other input (act 236) such as user input.

It can be useful to identify a user designation to determine whether auser is associated with a particular usage profile or if the user hasspecifically requested certain lenses. In order to identify the user,the user may be prompted for a Passport User Identifier (PUID), PersonalIdentification Number (PIN), or other information to verify orauthenticate a user. Alternatively, a user's mobile communicationsdevice can identify a user associated with the device through thetelephone number or MSISDN of the telephone. In such embodiments,however, the actual user of the telephone may not be the user that isassociated with the telephone.

Accordingly, it will be appreciated that the designation of the user canbe either an identified designation or an anonymous designation.Although an identified designation can allow for the presentation ofmore appropriate lenses and information to a user, the anonymousdesignation can still be used to select the appropriate one or morelenses to present to the user. In particular profiles can be developedfor anonymous users, based on the aggregate usage data gathered above,that correspond to lenses that are designed to accommodate the desiresand interests of anonymous users. These lenses could be subsequentlyused as the default lens for a new user, so they could benefit fromseeing the most popular information among service users.

The presence of the user can also be a relevant factor to considerduring the selection of the one or more appropriate lenses. Inparticular, the time in which the user is using their mobilecommunications device and the location of the user can relate to thetypes of information they want to access. For example, users may want toaccess the weather in the early morning and evening, but may be moreconcerned with their stock reports and email during the middle of theday. Likewise, if the user is located at a national park or amusementpark, they may be more interested in the times/accessibility of certainactivities and venues. Yet another example, if someone is located on ahighway, they may be concerned with accessing the traffic report fortraffic in the direction they are heading. It will be appreciated thegranularity in which the location and presence of a user can be examinedand determined can vary significantly to accommodate various needs andpreferences.

Likewise, user input and other extemporaneous input can also beconsidered when selecting lenses. For example, a user can explicitlyidentify lenses that they would like to use and have applied to theirmobile communications device. Users can also build or modify lenses, ontheir mobile communications devices or through traditional computers.For example, a user can access, build, and or modify a lens from acentral repository or a web service, such as provided by MSN Mobile withany computing device. One benefit of enabling a user to modify lenses insuch a manner is that they can customize the lenses to best suit theirdesires and lifestyles. For example, if a businessperson knows they willbe traveling to London, Hong Kong and New York on a regular basis, theymight want to fine tune existing lenses that correspond to thoselocations to more closely accommodate the manner in which they wouldlike information presented when they travel.

Other input that may be relevant is the capabilities of the mobilecommunications device to display the information related to a lens.Accordingly, there may be several variations of a lens to accommodatethe various capabilities of different mobile communications devices.

Although the various presence information and other input can begathered automatically via interaction between the mobile communicationsdevice and an information source, it will be appreciated that the mannerin which the presence information is collected can also vary toaccommodate privacy concerns, logistical constraints, and personalpreferences. For example, the methods of the invention can includeautomatically detecting the presence of a user, based on GPS, E911, orother positioning systems. Alternatively, or additionally, the presenceof a user may be based on explicit user input that has to be entered bya user with their mobile communications device.

Upon selecting the appropriate lenses, step 230, the lenses are providedto the user (act 240). According to one embodiment, this occurs througha push paradigm, such that the lenses are automatically provided to theuser's device, and without requiring the user to request them. Data canbe pushed, for example, via SMS, control channels, a GPRS data channel,MSP, and so forth. It will be appreciated, however, that in somesituations it may be desirable to utilize a pull system so that theresources of the user's device are only used in response to an explicituser request.

In some embodiments, the act of providing lenses can be performedobjectively through some sort of clearing house and based on the statusdata gathered regarding the user's identity and presence, as describedabove. In other embodiments, the lenses are only provided when a userhas specifically requested them. In yet other embodiments, thirdparties, such as friends, can send lenses to users directly withouthaving to involve the information source or clearing house thattypically provides the lenses.

Upon receiving a lens, the user may choose to store the lens on theirmobile communications device with one or more other lenses for extendedperiods of time. Alternatively, the user may wish to only temporarilystore a lens during its use, after which it will be erased from memory,and so as to preserve memory.

The final act illustrated in flowchart 200 is displaying the appropriatedata with the appropriate lenses (act 250). This act, which is performedat the mobile communications device, occurs when the mobilecommunications device loads and executes the computer-executableinstructions incorporated within the lens. It will be appreciated thatthis can involve the use of various presentation devices, including, butnot limited to visual display screens, speakers, and so forth. It shouldalso be appreciated that although the information is displayed at themobile communications device, the actual rendering processes required todisplay the information can also occur at a remote device, such as aserver. For example, in one embodiment, the client software on themobile communications device acts as a browser that displays xHTML pagesthat are processed for display at least in part by the server providingthe pages to the mobile communications device.

Although act 250 may include the display of only a single lens, incertain embodiments, act 250 also includes the display of multiplelenses, and even at the same time, as describe in more detail below.

Because the presence of the user can be dynamically updated andappropriate lenses can be continually sent to the user, it will beappreciated that the time it takes to receive the lens can be hiddenfrom the user, inasmuch as the user is not necessarily waiting for thelens if they have not explicitly requested it. Accordingly, when theuser does request a lens or for information to be displayed, it can bedisplayed very quickly, particularly when much or all of it is alreadycached on the mobile communications device, as can occur in the pushparadigm described above.

Attention is now drawn to FIGS. 3A-3E, which illustrate variousembodiments of a mobile communications device that is displayinginformation according to methods of the invention. It will beappreciated that the specific embodiments and examples provided below,with particular regard to the format of the displayed information, thetypes and styles of the displayed objects and icons, and the granularityof the information, should be construed as merely illustrative, andshould not, therefore, be construed as limiting the scope of theinvention.

As shown in FIG. 3A the mobile communications device 300 has a display310 that is being used to display information corresponding to a user'spersonal home lens 320. It will be appreciated that this personal homelens 320 can be created and modified by a user directly or by a thirdparty in response to a user's profile, as described above. Likewise, thelens 320 can be presented and displayed automatically in response to thedetection of particular presence information or in response to otherfactors, as described above.

In the illustrated embodiment, the personal lens 320 comprises anefficient display of basic information that is contextually relevant fora user based on their presence. As shown, the lens 320 includes anidentifiable icon 312 that can visually identify the type of lens 320that is being displayed to the user. The lens 320 also includes variousother information, as described below. For example, the lens 320includes a designation or name of the user (MyName) along with thestatus of the user (e.g., online or offline). The location of the user,Redmond, is also reflected along with the appropriate and relevantweather report for that city. The date and time is also reflected alongwith various news, sports and email links. According to the presentembodiment, a user can obtain a more detailed display and informationcorresponding to a particular subject by selecting any of thecorresponding links. For example, by selecting the News link, the userwill be presented with a more complete and thorough listing of the newsheadlines.

If the user were to then travel to a new location, such as Newark, thechange in presence is detected and used to obtain one or more newrelevant lenses, as described above. For example if later in the week,say Sunday the user decides to fly to Newark, then the user's home lenscan be replaced or modified by a new lens that is appropriate forNewark.

In particular, with reference to FIG. 3B, the user's home lens 320 hasupdated data at the time they left Redmond. It will also be noted thatsome of the information shown in FIG. 3A has been updated to reflect thecurrent state of certain information. For example, the date, weather andtime have been updated.

According to the present embodiment, upon arriving at the Newarkairport, and upon turning the mobile communications device back on,assuming it was turned off during the flight, the new presence at Newarkis detected and used to identify and obtain a new relevant travel lensfor presentation to the user. FIG. 3B illustrates the new travel lens330 as it is being placed over the existing home lens 320.

It will be appreciated that the travel lens 330 can display informationthat is contextually relevant for Newark, thereby replacing theinformation provided on the home lens 320. This is useful foreliminating the need for the user to look up information that hasalready been determined to be relevant or desired. Although the travellens 330 could be displayed by itself, the embodiment in FIG. 3Cillustrates how two lenses can be blended together. In particular, thetravel lens 330 is shown to be displayed simultaneously with the homelens 320 in a blended format. The user can easily determine the lensesthat are being utilized because of the icons that are displayed on thescreen. In particular, the home lens icon 312 and the travel lens icon332 indicate to the user which lenses are being blended. It will beappreciated that color patterns and other controllable features can bemodified to enhance the user experience and improve the quality anddistinguishing characteristics of different lenses.

It will also be appreciated that the presented information and format ofthe lenses can be modified to reflect any combination of merged lenses,which may, for example, include modifying of the lens frames, as shownin the blended home/travel lens 340. In particular, in the presentembodiment, the city location and weather information have beentruncated and joined into a single horizontal bar and in which thetraffic report for the travel lens 330 has replaced the date and timebar of the home lens 320.

In certain embodiments, the manner in which the lenses are displayed andblended can be determined automatically. In other embodiments, menus orother tools can be used to enable a user to customize the lenses and howthey are displayed. For example, with reference to FIG. 3D, a “more”menu 350 is expanded to reflect a number of possible lenses to display.In the present embodiment, only three lens options are available, a homeor personal lens (e.g., lens 320), a travel or current location lens(e.g., lens 330) and a sports scores lens, although in other embodimentsadditional lenses can also be obtained and utilized.

If a user wants to display any particular number of lenses then they canselect the lenses that they want to display. In the present example, auser has selected all three lenses. Accordingly, when the lenses aredisplayed, they will be blended appropriately into a single blended lens360, as shown in FIG. 3D. To facilitate the manner in which lenses areblended in a visually friendly format, different shades or colors can beused to correlate or correspond with the different lenses. For example,information corresponding to a home lens can have a blue background,information corresponding to a travel lens can have a beige background,and information corresponding to a sports lens can have a greenbackground.

It will be appreciated, however, that the foregoing lens illustrationsin FIGS. 3A-3D are merely illustrative and should not be construed aslimiting the scope of the invention. Rather, the invention should morebroadly be construed as applying to any types of templates or formatsfor displaying information as being contextually relevant to a userbased on the user's presence, identity, and other status information. Inother embodiments, the visual representation of the lenses can bemodified by altering the patterns, images and textures of the lenses.

It will be appreciated that the invention, as it has been described,overcomes many of the problems known in the prior art with displayinginformation on mobile communications devices. In particular, the presentinvention enables a user to quickly and easily obtain relevantinformation in a user-friendly manner, based on predetermined usageprofiles, and without requiring the user to waste the resources of theirdevice to filter through undesired data.

Computing Environment

It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that the inventionmay be practiced in computing systems and network computing environmentswith various configurations, including personal computers, hand-helddevices, multi-processor systems, microprocessor-based or programmableconsumer electronics, network PCs, minicomputers, mainframe computers,and the like. The invention may also be practiced in distributedcomputing environments where tasks are performed by local and remoteprocessing devices that are linked (either by hardwired links, wirelesslinks, or by a combination of hardwired or wireless links) through acommunications network. In a distributed computing environment, programmodules may be located in both local and remote memory storage devices.

With reference to FIG. 4, an exemplary system that can be used, forexample to develop aggregate user preference data and to perform many ofthe other acts and steps of the invention is provided. The illustratedsystem includes a general purpose computing device in the form of aconventional computer 420, including a processing unit 421, a systemmemory 422, and a system bus 423 that couples various system componentsincluding the system memory 422 to the processing unit 421. The systembus 423 may be any of several types of bus structures including a memorybus or memory controller, a peripheral bus, and a local bus using any ofa variety of bus architectures. The system memory includes read onlymemory (ROM) 424 and random access memory (RAM) 425. A basicinput/output system (BIOS) 426, containing the basic routines that helptransfer information between elements within the computer 420, such asduring start-up, may be stored in ROM 424.

The computer 420 may also include a magnetic hard disk drive 427 forreading from and writing to a magnetic hard disk 439, a magnetic diskdrive 428 for reading from or writing to a removable magnetic disk 429,and an optical disk drive 430 for reading from or writing to removableoptical disk 431 such as a CD-ROM, DVD-ROM or other optical media. Themagnetic hard disk drive 427, magnetic disk drive 428, and optical diskdrive 430 are connected to the system bus 423 by a hard disk driveinterface 432, a magnetic disk drive-interface 433,. and an opticaldrive interface 434, respectively. The drives and their associatedcomputer-readable media provide nonvolatile storage ofcomputer-executable instructions, data structures, program modules andother data for the computer 420. Although the exemplary environmentdescribed herein employs a magnetic hard disk 439, a removable magneticdisk 429 and a removable optical disk 431, other types of computerreadable media for storing data can be used, including magneticcassettes, flash memory cards, digital versatile disks, Bernoullicartridges, RAMs, ROMs, and the like.

Program code means comprising one or more program modules may be storedon the hard disk 439, magnetic disk 429, optical disk 431, ROM 424 orRAM 425, including an operating system 435, one or more applicationprograms 436, other program modules 437, and program data 438. A usermay enter commands and information into the computer 420 throughkeyboard 440, pointing device 442, or other input devices (not shown),such as a microphone, joy stick, game pad, satellite dish, scanner, orthe like. These and other input devices are often connected to theprocessing unit 421 through a serial port interface 446 coupled tosystem bus 423. Alternatively, the input devices may be connected byother interfaces, such as a parallel port, a game port or a universalserial bus (USB). A monitor 447 or another display device is alsoconnected to system bus 423 via an interface, such as video adapter 448.In addition to the monitor, personal computers typically include otherperipheral output devices (not shown), such as speakers and printers.

The computer 420 may operate in a networked environment using logicalconnections to one or more remote computers, such as remote computers449 a and 449 b. Remote computers 449 a and 449 b may each be anotherpersonal computer, a server, a router, a network PC, a peer device orother common network node, and typically include many or all of theelements described above relative to the computer 420, although onlymemory storage devices 450 a and 450 b and their associated applicationprograms 436 a and 436 b have, been illustrated in FIG. 4. The logicalconnections depicted in FIG. 4 include a local area network (LAN) 451and a wide area network (WAN) 452 that are presented here by way ofexample and not limitation. Such networking environments are commonplacein office-wide or enterprise-wide computer networks, intranets and theInternet.

When used in a LAN networking environment, the computer 420 is connectedto the local network 451 through a network interface or adapter 453.When used in a WAN networking environment, the computer 420 may includea modem 454, a wireless link, or other means for establishingcommunications over the wide area network 452, such as the Internet. Themodem 454, which may be internal or external, is connected to the systembus 423 via the serial port interface 446. In a networked environment,program modules depicted relative to the computer 420, or portionsthereof, may be stored in the remote memory storage device. It will beappreciated that the network connections shown are exemplary and othermeans of establishing communications over wide area network 452 may beused.

The present invention may be embodied in other specific forms withoutdeparting from its spirit or essential characteristics. The describedembodiments are to be considered in all respects only as illustrativeand not restrictive. The scope of the invention is, therefore, indicatedby the appended claims rather than by the foregoing description. Allchanges which come within the meaning and range of equivalency of theclaims are to be embraced within their scope.

1. A method for selecting information to be delivered to a mobilecommunications device, the method comprising: aggregating userpreference data from tracked computer usage and tracked telephone usagefrom a plurality of users into one or more aggregate usage profiles; andbuilding one or more lenses that can be used to present information atone or more mobile communications devices and that are based upon theone or more usage profiles.
 2. A method as recited in claim 1, furthercomprising: selecting an appropriate one or more of the lenses to usefor presenting information to a particular mobile communications devicebased upon at least one of a user designation associated with the mobilecommunications device and a presence of the mobile communicationsdevice.
 3. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein the tracked computerusage includes data corresponding to the information that is accessed bya plurality of users with their computers.
 4. A method as recited inclaim 1, wherein the tracked telephone usage includes data correspondingto the information that is accessed by a plurality of users with theircomputers.
 5. A computer program product comprising one or morecomputer-readable media having computer-executable instructions forimplementing a method for selecting information to be delivered to amobile communications device, the method comprising: aggregating userpreference data from tracked computer usage and tracked telephone usagefrom a plurality of users into one or more aggregate usage profiles; andbuilding one or more lenses that can be used to present information atone or more mobile communications devices and that are based upon theone or more usage profiles.
 6. A computer program product method asrecited in claim 5, wherein the method further comprises: selecting anappropriate one or more of the lenses to use for presenting informationto a particular mobile communications device based upon at least one ofa user designation associated with the mobile communications device anda presence of the mobile communications device.
 7. A method fordisplaying information at a mobile communications device, the methodcomprising: reflecting status data of a mobile communications device toa remote information source, the status data comprising at least one ofa user designation associated with the mobile communications device anda presence of the mobile communications device; receiving one or morelenses that control the display of information received at the mobilecommunications device; and receiving and displaying the receivedinformation at the mobile communications device as specified by the oneor more lenses and as corresponding to the status data.
 8. A method asrecited in claim 7, wherein the status data includes both the presenceof the user and a user designation.
 9. A method as recited in claim 8,wherein the user designation includes one of a user's identity and ananonymous designation.
 10. A method as recited in claim 7, wherein themethod further includes automatically reflecting a change in the statusdata to the remote information source.
 11. A method as recited in claim10, the method further includes automatically receiving a newappropriate lens corresponding with the change in the status data, andwith the user having to request the new appropriate lens.
 12. A methodas recited in claim 7, wherein a plurality of lenses that control thedisplay of information are received at the mobile communications deviceand wherein the plurality of lenses are used to blend the receivedinformation into a single blended lens display.
 13. A computer programproduct comprising one or more computer-readable media havingcomputer-executable instructions for implementing a method fordisplaying information at a mobile communications device, the methodcomprising: reflecting status data of a mobile communications device toa remote information source, the status data comprising at least one ofa user designation associated with the mobile communications device anda presence of the mobile communications device; receiving one or morelenses that control the display of information received at the mobilecommunications device; and receiving and displaying the receivedinformation at the mobile communications device as specified by the oneor more lenses and as corresponding to the status data.
 14. A computerprogram product as recited in claim 13, wherein the status data includesboth the presence of the user and a user designation.
 15. A methodprogram product as recited in claim 13, wherein the method furtherincludes automatically reflecting a change in the status data to theremote information source.
 16. A program product as recited in claim 16,wherein the method further includes automatically receiving a newappropriate lens corresponding with the change in the status data, andwith the user having to request the new appropriate lens.
 17. A programproduct as recited in claim 13, wherein a plurality of lenses thatcontrol the display of information are received at the mobilecommunications device and wherein the plurality of lenses are used toblend the received information into a single blended lens display.
 18. Amethod for displaying information at a mobile communications device, themethod comprising: reflecting status data of a mobile communicationsdevice to a remote information source, the status data comprising atleast one of a user designation associated with the mobilecommunications device and a presence of the mobile communicationsdevice; receiving a plurality of lenses that control the display ofinformation that is received at the mobile communications device;identifying two or more of the plurality of lenses to utilize whendisplaying the information; receiving and blending the information atthe mobile communications device into a single display, as specified bythe two or more lenses, the single display corresponding at least partlyon the status data.